The present invention relates generally to computer I/O, and more particularly to packet-switched communications between computer system components.
The Peripheral Component Interconnect (“PCI”) is a well established and widely deployed standard that specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. Successor standards such as PCI-X, which stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended, have increased the bandwidth and addressed perceived shortcomings.
PCI Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E or PCIe, is a serial packet-based protocol that provides higher yet transfer speeds, and addresses additional perceived shortcomings of PCI and PCI-X. In addition, there are a number of other peripheral interface standards (e.g., USB, FireWire, Ethernet) with wide deployment. As computers get smaller, it is sometimes difficult to accommodate the need to provide all the connectors that users have come to expect.